Independent Republican Presidential candidate and conservative blogger Andy Martin moved into Chicago’s 42nd Ward forty years ago. The Forty-Second had been home to the notorious crime syndicate hoodlum “Botchie Connors” and contained the heart of Chicago’s honky tonk district. Today the 42nd Ward hosts the “Viagra Triangle.” From his base in the 42nd Ward Andy has consistently fought local and state corruption. The latest insect on the political horizon is “Tommy Smithburg,” who is trying to buy the Republican Party’s 42nd ward Committeeman’s position with the deep pockets of his dad Bill Smithburg. And, in typical Chicago/Illinois political corruption style, craven politicians are lining up with their hands out for more Smithburg cash, all while supporting little Tommy. Charges of money-laundering are flying. Voter fraud is alleged. Welcome to Chicago, America’s “Capital of Corruption.”

“Little Tommy” is in a heated race to purchase the Republican Party’s 42nd Ward Committeeman post in Chicago

Andy says Smithburg’s robo-calls and nasty mailers are taking politics in a seamy ward to a new low in sliminess

Even senile Republican “Warbucks” Jack Roeser has a bit role in this farce

(CHICAGO) (March 16, 2012) Independent Republican Presidential Candidate and conservative blogger Andy Martin opens the back doors of seamy Chicago politics to a national political audience with his latest column on the “campaign” of “Little Tommy Smithburg.”

Forty years ago I moved into Chicago’s 42nd Ward (you can check the deed for 1200 N. Lake Shore Drive). I have seen famous nite spots such as Mr. Kelly’s change hands and change names. (The Original Pancake House has somehow survived all of those years.) Politicians have headed to the graveyard or federal prison, not always in the same order. I have lived at several addresses in the ward.

The 42nd Ward Democratic Committeeman and Cook County Board President, George Dunne, and I became polite friends. Dunne was always trying to recruit me to become a “machine” politician. Politely I declined. Dunne once accused Dick Kay, WMAQ-TV’s political reporter, of being my “campaign manager.” Kay is now a flack on Chicago radio. I saw George Dunne at the Greek Islands restaurant and sent him a bottle of wine shortly before he died. In his bed.

The Crime Syndicate once tried to end my political career prematurely, if you know what I mean. But that’s a story for another day.

I have been a colorful part of a colorful ward but I have always maintained my corruption-fighting independence and integrity. That’s not an easy thing to do in Illinois politics. Not for 47 years.

The latest circus in the 42nd Ward revolves around a wealthy retired Quaker Oats executive, Bill Smithburg, and his son “Little Tommy” Smithburg. Little Tommy’s sole claim to fame at the age of 24 is that while serving as the president of a Northwestern University fraternity he arranged for the “Half Pint Brawlers,” a performing dwarfs show, to appear at his fraternity during “rush” (recruitment) season. You can read the links and decide how much weight to give to Tommy’s bad judgment four years ago. Tommy claims the dwarf incident was a “learning experience.” (Isn’t that the phrase Obama is always using?)

Little Tommy’s daddy has given nearly a third of a million dollars to Illinois Republican candidates and “committees.” When the checks mount up into the hundreds of thousands, Illinois politicians take notice and start paying rapt attention. Then they get their hands out and start asking for more. So it is no surprise that a long line of Republican luminaries, palms out, are “endorsing” Little Tommy for Ward Committeeman.

There are even charges of “money-laundering” involving Little Tommy’s dad and senile Republican Daddy Warbucks Jack Roeser. (The details of all of these allegations can be found in the long list of links below which accompany and document this reporting.)

Today I got my first robo-call for Little Tommy. Hapless and incompetent former gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady of Bloomington, Illinois phoned me to endorse Little Tommy. Bloomington is a long way from Chicago but Bill Brady knows a 45 cent stamp can still carry a campaign contribution check between the two cities. There are governors and other luminaries who have “endorsed” Little Tommy. Daddy apparently isn’t embarrassed. Money can buy you anything in Chicago, and it has certainly purchased a long line of endorsers for Little Tommy.

What makes Little Tommy a complete joke is that he exemplifies everything that is crass and corrupt and just plain wrong about politics, both in Illinois and nationally. Tommy is also an embarrassment to his “generation.” Little Tommy “interned” at Goldman Sachs, the notoriously corrupt Wall Street investment Bank that helped bring down our economy and destroyed millions of working family jobs. I am sure Little Tommy didn’t “share the pain” or “feel the pain” of his malignant and malevolent co-workers at Goldman Sachs. When you steal from working people you can’t have a conscience. The work is just too dirty.

Earlier this week, a senior Goldman executive resigned—by publishing a resignation letter in the New York Times calling the firm utterly corrupt and mendacious (link below-“Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs”). So Mr. Smithburg doesn’t really have the kind of job “experience” that would commend him to his neighbors.

Tommy says he is now working at a “healthcare-focused lower middle market private equity firm in Chicago.” Oh, yah. Tommy is trying to figure out ways to profit from the medical misery of others. That’s what they teach you when you intern at Goldman Sachs.

But perhaps I’m being unfair to Little Tommy. Maybe he really is an earnest young man that wants to “serve” 42nd Ward Republicans. As they say in the midnight TV infomercials, “but wait, there’s more.”

Little Tommy’s robo-callers tell me Tommy has “new ideas” and that he wants to “grow the Republican Party.” Grrreat. There’s just one problem. All of the people Tommy’s daddy has been giving money to in the Republican Party are the same people that have devastated the party and created the current “Combine” of Republican and Democratic corruption. Tommy’s lead “endorser” is Corrupt-Republican-in-Chief State Chairman Pat Brady. Brady serves as the affable and innocuous front man for all of the Republican Party’s current sleaze.

So the obvious question is, how is Little Tommy going to make “changes” that would disenfranchise all of daddy’s political contacts who endorsed Little Tommy in the first place? It appears that Little Tommy’s words are just hollow claims that bear no connection to the tawdry reality of who is bankrolling and endorsing his candidacy.

Sadly, Little Tommy is no more than a front man for his father’s political cronies. Little Tommy is a fraud, a phony and a pitiful excuse for what passes for reform in the Illinois Republican Party. The political crooks are now so arrogant they run their own “reformers” to undermine legitimately independent candidacies.

Little Tommy’s web page says “It’s time for a new day.” Maybe it’s “time for a new way.” Bill and Tommy Smithburg should take their millions elsewhere, and stop trying to pretend they are political reformers when they are only stooges for the worst elements in Republican Party politics.

On the other hand, Little Tommy would be a fine successor to crime syndicate hoodlums such as the late 42nd Ward Committeeman “Botchie” Connors, who ran one of the most successful gangster organizations in Chicago history. Come to think of it, Little Tommy lives only a stone’s throw from a park memorializing the Crime Syndicate hoodlum who controlled the ward. Yes, it’s Botchie’s park. Maybe Little Tommy takes his inspiration from sitting in Botchie Connors’ Park. They would get along just fine together. Botchie would collect his “vig” and put Bill Smithburg’s “kid” up for something.

Hey, it’s the Chicago way. If you don’t believe me just ask Barack Obama and David Axelrod. They know all about “The Chicago Way.” And now so do you.

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ABOUT ANDY: Andy is a legendary New York and Chicago-based muckraker, author, Internet columnist, talk television pioneer, radio talk show host, broadcaster and media critic. Chicago Public Radio calls Andy a “boisterous Internet activist.” The Chicago Tribune calls him “Chicago’s own…political activist.” He has forty-four years of background in radio and television. He is the author of “Obama: The Man Behind The Mask” [www.OrangeStatePress.com] and he produced the Internet film “Obama: The Hawaii’ Years” [www.BoycottHawaii.com]. Andy is the Executive Editor and publisher of the “Internet Powerhouse,” http://www.ContrarianCommentary.com. He comments on regional, national and international events with more than four decades of investigative and analytical experience both in the USA and around the world.